Oddball
Unobtanium Member
Been having a protracted online conversation with some NLP and hypnosis pros on this one over the last few days.
Seems consensus has been reached as to why the florid speeches of hopey-changey have vanished, and why they wouldn't work were they being used this time around... Turns out that the idea of "change" as floated by Obama's 2008 campaign flies in the face of numerous clinical rules on how to guide clients and subjects from point A to point B, and it appears obvious that the spinmeisters and speechwriters in the campaign today know this.
1) Know your outcome.
2) The change must be under your control.
3) You need evidence that the change is in fact occurring.
4) No evidence = No credibility and no reason to continue the program.
Long and the short of it: Even if Obama went back to the NLP/hypnosis Jedi mind trick "soaring rhetoric" speeches, the reality doesn't match the words...Hopey-changey was so much semantic snake oil...The only people who would buy into it this time around would be the Kool-Aid snorting true believers, and it would most likely turn off those who aren't....Therefore, all that remains is the scorched Earth campaign that has been waged.
Seems consensus has been reached as to why the florid speeches of hopey-changey have vanished, and why they wouldn't work were they being used this time around... Turns out that the idea of "change" as floated by Obama's 2008 campaign flies in the face of numerous clinical rules on how to guide clients and subjects from point A to point B, and it appears obvious that the spinmeisters and speechwriters in the campaign today know this.
1) Know your outcome.
Change for the sake of it or oriented in terms of avoidance (i.e. quitting smoking, losing weight) sets the subject up for failure...Changes need to be specific and stated in terms of gain, to have the emotional impact that propels the subject to attain the desired objective..."Hope" and "change" are far too subjective and open to emotional interpretation of the interpreter...Result: Recipe for failure baked into the cake.
2) The change must be under your control.
The throwaway platitude of "The change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington." belted out by Obama in his nomination acceptance speech tells us all we need to know here...You give up what "change" means to an outside influence, you will then almost certainly be disappointed in the manifestation of that change... In order for any change to have a personal impact, it must be under one's control so that the physical evidence the change creates is not in doubt... Expecting others to deliver to you your change, when you want it, and exactly the way you want it is as sure a pathway to failure that there is.
3) You need evidence that the change is in fact occurring.
Not in control of your change and surprised that you end up with 15+% real unemployment for 3+ years, another $6 trillion in debt, more foreign wars, more police/snoop state, more bureaucracy, schools that still suck, $4.00 gasoline, lobbyists infesting the White House, GITMO still open, (your favorite gripe here)?...Well, that's what you get for leaving your ideas of what constitutes change in the hands of someone else, let alone someone who doesn't even know you...For millions upon millions of Americans, the change they imagined never came.
4) No evidence = No credibility and no reason to continue the program.
Your subject doesn't get the clearly defined outcomes they desire, and you're out of a client...They'll go to the Yellow Pages and look up witch doctors.
Long and the short of it: Even if Obama went back to the NLP/hypnosis Jedi mind trick "soaring rhetoric" speeches, the reality doesn't match the words...Hopey-changey was so much semantic snake oil...The only people who would buy into it this time around would be the Kool-Aid snorting true believers, and it would most likely turn off those who aren't....Therefore, all that remains is the scorched Earth campaign that has been waged.